The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot

An essay by Kenny Brechner

    On February 13^th Random House, the publisher of National Geographic books, informed booksellers that "National Geographic Announces A Groundbreaking Discovery of an Historic Manuscript That Will Make Headlines Around The World!" We were told that a Global Press release would be made in Mid April, and that two books dubbed "Special Title #1 (The Story of the 30 Year Quest) ‘ and " Special Title #2 (The Manuscript with Interpretive Commentary)" would be released on April 24^th in conjunction with a two hour National Geographic Special.

    The cat, as they are prone to do, got out of the bag last Friday afternoon, and the book industry was abuzz with the news that our National Geographic text was The Lost Gospel of Judas, Iscariot. Random House responded by confirming that the two books in question were The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot (Formerly known as National Geographic Special Title #1) and The Gospel of Judas (Formerly known as National Geographic Special Title #2 ).

    This news was a source of excitement in an industry that is, alas, somewhat jaded in the enthusiasm department. My hardened, but amiable, Baker & Taylor wholesaling representative, Cindy Hutchins, confided in me that the discovery was "incredibly cool." While my imperturbably debonair Random House representative Camille Marchi, though markedly under the weather Friday afternoon, acknowledged that she was "really excited" and had already ordered a personal copy.

    Indeed, nothing is fraught with more interest than a lost manuscript of antiquity, one loaded down with historical importance, mentioned by ancients sources but no longer extant, such as is The Gospel of Judas. On the other hand, it behooves us not to sensationalize the discovery, something made practically impossible by the looming theatrical release of The Da Vinci Code in May, (book also by Random House,) along with the sensational nature of the words "The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot."

    The brief press release sent to booksellers reads as follows. "The National Geographic Society is working with an international team of experts to analyze a collection of ancient papyrus documents, known as a codex, that were first discovered nearly 30 years ago in Egypt. These rare, early-Christian texts are believed to be nearly 2,000 years old and include two never-before-seen manuscripts -- The Gospel of Judas and an untitled, fragmentary work."

    Without seeing the manuscript we can still infer a fair amount of important information concerning the National Geographic manuscript. The Gospel of Judas, a 62-page Coptic (written in Egyptian with Greek characters) papyrus text is mentioned by Iranaeus, Bishop of Lyons, in 180 as a Gnostic text of Cainite origin dating from some point shortly before 180AD. The Gospel of Judas is from the same period as the Gnostic Gospels which comprise the Nag Hammadi, such as The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Mary, and The Gospel of Philip. These texts like The Gospel of Judas, were known from the writing of Iranaeus, and were not themselves extent until a cache of them was discovered in 1945.

    It should be noted that the writers of these Gnostic texts did not give them their titles. The names were given by later copyists who took the title from the central figure of the text. The Gnostic texts were not written by the person named in the title, and it is a virtual certainty that Judas Iscariat did not write The Gospel of Judas.

    The Cainites, were a group who, according to Dr. Glen Miller of the Bangor Theological Seminary, were of a mind to "take negative figures and make them figures of light....where orthodoxy saw evil they saw good." In this regard a positive portrayal of Judas "would be a natural for them." The Gospel of Judas, then, is most likely a second century Cainite text in which Judas is portrayed in a positive light according to Cainite beliefs. And that is a fascinating thing to be.

    Just because The Gospel of Judas isn’t Judas’ personal memoir, and won’t stand orthodoxy on its head any more than any other Gnostic text, just because we won’t be hearing Judas defend the Gospel’s veracity on Oprah any time soon, doesn’t mean that the forthcoming national Geographic publication isn’t a wonderful find, and a fascinating historical document. I know that I can’t wait to read it.